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One dead, three injured in Surrey after motorcycle crashes into female high school students

One girl is dead and two more are in critical condition after being hit by a motorcycle Wednesday morning in Surrey, police say. The girls were students at Princess Margaret Secondary school and were on their lunch hour when struck.

Photograph by: Ric Ernst
, PNG

METRO VANCOUVER - A teen girl was killed and three other people were seriously injured Wednesday morning after a motorcycle crashed into three girls crossing a street during lunch break at their Surrey high school.

Amarpreet Sivia, a 16-year-old honour-roll student at Princess Margaret secondary known for her big smile, was killed in the collision near 128th Street and 69A Avenue that happened around 11:30 a.m., just after the lunch bell rang. Sivia’s family rents a three-bedroom basement suite from Balbir Sihota, who said Wednesday evening that Amarpreet was a friendly, quiet girl.

Sivia moved into the suite about two years ago and was the last of three sisters still living with her parents, according to Sihota.

In an online profile, Sivia said she was an avid soccer and volleyball player who loved listening to music on her iPod.

“This summer I went to summer school, here at PM. It was cool because I made new friends from other schools,” she said in the profile.

Local residents say the spot where the teens were hit is a particularly dangerous section of road, where Princess Margaret students often jaywalk across four lanes in the middle of a very long block to get cheap slices of pizza or a samosa during lunch.

“There’s always a big problem with (students) crossing,” said Cherenjit Dhillon, who owns a retail building near the crash site. “The kids don’t have enough time to go to the traffic lights and cross.”

A report sent to Surrey city council in 2011 that looked at the feasibility of turning the park next to Princess Margaret into a sports and cultural centre noted that 128th Street was a clear danger to pedestrians. It suggested that a new pedestrian crossing may be required if a centre is to be built at the site.

The three girls were outside of a marked crosswalk on 128th Street just south of Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Princess Margaret when the southbound motorbike crashed into them at about 11:24 a.m., according to Surrey RCMP.

Two people, including the male driver, were airlifted to hospital, one to Vancouver General and the other to Royal Columbian in New Westminster. The conditions of the driver and Sivia’s two friends were unknown late Wednesday night.

The accident site was littered with the debris from the collision, including the yellow Yamaha motorcycle that hit the girls, as well as shoes, clothing, a purse and jackets. The entire area was blocked off to traffic for the afternoon as investigators surveyed the scene.

Heman Aggarwal of Aggarwal Health and Wellness Centre heard the crash from her business.

“One girl was severely injured,” she said. “Another wasn’t breathing at all. One girl was screaming for help.”

Aggarwal also said students regularly cross the four lanes to get to restaurants and shops on the other side. “In their break time, a lot of them cross. But there’s no crosswalk, nothing, nothing. It’s the same every day.”

Aggarwal also noted that bushes and trees in the traffic median provide a blind spot for drivers who might not see students crossing from the other side.

Hamida Rahman, a Grade 12 student who knew the girls well, said Sivia who died was very friendly and outgoing.

“I saw her this morning. She made everybody’s day.”

Rahman said the three girls were in many school groups. “They were very involved. They set a good example for everyone.”

Another student, who was crying, agreed that the three girls were very popular and nice. “One was very funny.”

Salma Abshir, a Grade 11 student at Princess Margaret, said the school was very quiet Wednesday afternoon and kids were very upset. “A few people were crying in class.”

Late Wednesday afternoon, 21-year-old Devin Gill was at the scene staring dumbfounded at the wreckage. Gill lives nearby and said he drives an identical yellow 50th-anniversary edition of the Yamaha R-6 sport bike.

“I got a lot of calls asking if I was OK or not” immediately after the crash, Gill said.

He said he often noticed the driver’s bike parked in Kwantlen’s lot, but didn’t know his name.

Kwantlen student Mike Hoffmann, 19, said people were talking about the crash all day in class. Hoffmann commutes daily to campus on his motorbike and saw the driver of the yellow bike involved in the crash park his bike in the university lot about twice a week.

Doug Strachan, a spokesman for the Surrey school district, said school officials are working with Surrey Mounties investigating the crash.

Strachan said once in classes, students were notified of the incident and counselling services were offered.

“Our sympathies go out to the families involved,” Strachan said.

“It has an impact on everybody in the school community, some more than others, who knew the girls involved,” he said, adding that additional counselling services have been made available to students.

One girl is dead and two more are in critical condition after being hit by a motorcycle Wednesday morning in Surrey, police say. The girls were students at Princess Margaret Secondary school and were on their lunch hour when struck.

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